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Anyone Can Improvise.(Book review)
* Anyone Can Improvise, by Matt Dennis. Mel Bay Publications, Inc., 2008. www.melbay.com; (800) 863-5229; 88pp.; $14.95.
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As a musician for whom improvising did not come easily, and as a teacher with adult students who want to learn to improvise, I am always on the lookout for a good book that can teach improvising. Despite its promising title, Anyone Can Improvise is not that book.
The book does have many excellent features, however. The main body of the book is songs and Matt Dennis, composer of the hit standard Angel Eyes, does write great songs. Each of these attractive pieces--including Angel Eyes--is presented four ways (1) standard traditional "vocal/piano" arrangement, (2) an arrangement of a comping style--an arrangement as one might accompany a singer, (3) a well-written jazz solo arrangement and (4) "lead sheet," melody and chords only.
The minimal text--three pages total--gives the briefest summary of what jazz musicians do. While conciseness can be a virtue, this briefest of descriptions is really not instruction. For example, for "comping" he states "We must be familiar with chord voicings and inversions to play in this style...." Voicings and inversions are not explained, described or even defined. A beginning ...
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...saloon song" number such as "Angel Eyes," for instance, it's painfully...heartbreak then he can stand. Matt Dennis' "Angel Eyes" ("Hey, drink up all you...with the same intensity as "Angel Eyes." The Harold Arlen-Johnny...
- Tony Danza.(Concert Review)
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...appears that the heart preempts the brain with an earnest attempt to offer a few melodic strains of the old Matt Dennis ballad "Angel Eyes." He works very hard and perhaps a little too hard in his hour- plus turn, yet he's clearly having...
- `Angel Eyes'.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)
- Newspaper article from: Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service Pols, Mary F. May 16, 2001 700+ words
...the slightly pretentious but likable "Angel Eyes," Jennifer Lopez takes on and conquers...just appealing, but pretty decent. "Angel Eyes" also get points for dealing realistically...wagons. Perhaps most chillingly, "Angel Eyes" shows how the legacy is transferred...
- [0] `Angel Eyes'.(The Dallas Morning News)
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Watching "Angel Eyes" is akin to listening to a confessional...you've heard it all before. "Angel Eyes" deals with a surplus of emotions...a pillar of resilience. Much of "Angel Eyes" seems borrowed from other movies...
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"Angel Eyes," shortsighted liability if there ever...loners redeemed by gratitude and love. "Angel Eyes" sleepwalks and dithers to pathetic...droopy mystery devices that clutter up "Angel Eyes" by playing fast and loose with the...
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...wreck from his past. If the highly creative (read: downright misleading) ad campaign Warner Bros. has designed around "Angel Eyes" is to be believed, there's a supernatural mystery that connects them. You know, "Sixth Sense" with a little booty...
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Source: HighBeam Research, Anyone Can Improvise.(Book review)